Snapchat update brings group stories and custom stories based on a particular location

Snapchat finally took note of its users’ demands and introduced sharing of snaps by multiple users to the same Story. They had to do it, considering the fact that people are moving to Instagram Stories now.

Anyway, the new feature, which was announced on Tuesday, lets you create Stories that can be viewed and managed by your friends as well. However, there are two parts to the new Story feature– private group story independent of location and public story based on location. The new group story will appear under “Stories” for all the people who have been selected to view and manage it.

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Private group story independent of the location

Consider the first new feature as a WhatsApp group, where in addition to you, your friends can share snaps to the Story that you have created. You have to name the group Story and select the friends that can add snaps to it. People who can add snaps to the story are eligible to view it as well. However, you can select other people who can just view the group story and not contribute to it. Any Snaps added to the group are visible by the whole group.

Also, members can see who views their snap. Furthermore, for your info, members are not hidden, everybody in the group can see other members of the same group story. The creator of the group can add and remove people even after the group is created.

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How to create private group story independent of location

To do this, follow the steps:

  • Swipe left from the home screen of Snapchat to open “Stories”.
  • Tap the new Plus icon present in the top right corner.
  • Name your custom story.
  • Tap “Who can add” to select the people who will contribute to the story.
  • Tap “Who can view” to select people who can only view the story. People who are added in “Who can add” are authorized automatically to view the story. If you remove them from viewing the story, they will no longer be able to add snaps to the custom story.
  • Tap “Create Story” to create the new private group story.

Once you have created the story, people in the new story will be notified and they can add and view snaps according to the settings that you have kept.

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Public custom story based on location

Alternatively, you can allow multiple users based on their current location, to contribute to the story by enabling the second feature, which is known as Geofence. It’s the responsibility of the creator of the group to outline a geofence for the story. This is, kind of a public story, where you can choose either all your followers who are in the same location or “friends of friends” to add and view the snaps in the story.

How to create a custom story based on location

To do this, follow the steps:

  • Swipe left from the home screen of Snapchat to open “Stories”.
  • Tap the new Plus icon present in the top right corner.
  • Name your custom story.
  • Enable Geofence option and outline a geofence for your story.
  • Tap “Who can add” and choose from “Friends” or “Friends or friends”. Similarly, tap “Who can view” and choose from “Friends” or “Friends or friends” based on your preference.
  • Tap “Create Story”.

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In case you are wondering regarding the time limit of the new stories, nothing has changed. Individual Snaps added to a custom story are still ephemeral, which last for 24 hours, however, groups can last for more than 24 hours, until there is no activity in the group for last 24 hours i.e. if no snap is added to the custom group for 24 hours, it gets deleted automatically.

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